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Layout tips for tools ot every bench is the same, so you’ll have to custom-fit this design to suit your situation. To determine the exterior dimensions of your cabinet, measure the distance between the legs of your workbench. My cabinet slides in from the end of the bench, just fitting between the front and rear legs, and leaving a 3-in.wide clamping ledge along both the front and back of the bench. This also keeps the cabinet from interfering with the benchdogs. If your bench doesn’t have stretchers positioned to support the cabinet, you may have to add ledger strips as I did. N Some time spent planning the arrangement of items in the drawers and cabinet will result in the most efficient layout. I started by grouping similar items that might go into the same drawer. I put all the stuff that accumulates in the tool well—sanding blocks, glue bottles, pencils, tape, spacers, and partially used sandpaper— together in the top shallow drawer. Larger items like clamps, hold-downs, and bench hooks fit in the larger drawers. When I designed my wall-hung tool cabinet I made scaled graphpaper cutouts of my tools to find the best fit. But here I simply laid things out on the bench to see how they fit together. I cut a scrap to the length of the cabinet, arranged the tools, and marked the door and drawer sizes on the stick. Outer stiles, 5⁄8 in. thick by 6 in. wide UNDER-BENCH CABINET Plywood and dadoes make for a quick, practical carcase; a cherry face frame and frame-and-panel back dress it up. Space for more storage on end panels Screws through extension fix cabinet to bench. Top rail, 5⁄8 in. thick by 3 in. wide Back panels, 5⁄8 in. thick Inner stiles, 5⁄8 in. thick by 3 in. wide Tenon, 1⁄4 in. thick by 2 in. wide by 11⁄2 in. long Dadoes, 1⁄4 in. deep Groove, 1⁄2 in. deep by 1⁄4 in. wide Bottom rail, 5⁄8 in. thick by 31⁄2 in. wide Cabinet ends and vertical dividers, Baltic-birch plywood, 3⁄4 in. thick Maple drawer runners, 9⁄16 in. thick by 3⁄4 in. wide Dadoes, 1⁄4 in. deep Extension rests on bench’s end stretcher. 56 FINE WOODWORKING NG